What does Krishna's tolerance signify?

Questioner: krishna put up with nine hundred and ninety-nine invectives hurled on him by king shishupal, but he killed him with his chakra -- a wheel-like weapon -- when the king fired his last invective. Does it not show that krishna's tolerance is only skin deep, that deep down he was intolerant?

It can appear so, because we all have only skin deep tolerance. If I lose my temper on the fourth foul word hurled at me, it means I had lost it with the very first one, but somehow I put up with three of them, and appeared in my true colors as soon as the fourth one came. But the contrary can also happen, and Krishna is that contrary; he is not like us. There is every possibility that he was an exception to this generality. It is not that Krishna's tolerance could take only nine hundred ninety-nine invectives. Do you think nine hundred ninety-nine are not enough. And that one who can bear this huge number of abuses cannot bear one more? It is really hard to believe. The real question before Krishna is not that his tolerance has run out, the real question is that the man confronting…

Osho, Krishna tolerated nine hundred and ninety-nine insults but could not bear even one more—he killed Shishupala with his discus. Doesn’t this prove that he only tolerated the earlier insults outwardly, while inwardly he was somewhat intolerant?

One could think so, because that’s how we all are. If we flare up at the fourth insult, we know perfectly well that we had actually flared up at the very first. We merely held ourselves together through three; we had tolerance up to three—and then we ran out, and at the fourth our intolerance showed itself. But with Krishna it can be just the opposite. And Krishna is a very contrary man—he doesn’t function the way we do. So the opposite possibility suits him more. It’s not that his tolerance lasted only up to nine hundred and ninety-nine insults. Nine hundred and ninety-nine insults are quite a lot. And if someone can bear nine hundred and ninety-nine, to say he cannot bear the thousandth is hard to imagine. The big question for Krishna is not that his tolerance ran out; the big question is that the other person’s limit…

Osho, what qualities in Krishna’s personality are relevant for today’s age, and what significance can his personality have today? Please shed some light.

Hence even those who worshipped Krishna have worshipped him in fragments. Surdas’s Krishna never grows beyond childhood. The adult Krishna is dangerous; Surdas could not endure him. If child Krishna teases the village women, we do not mind much; but if a young Krishna does so, we are troubled, because we can only understand on our own level. Lacking any other measure, we select a form we like and reject the rest. Those who love the Gita ignore the Bhagavata, because the Krishna of the Bhagavata is quite different; and those who love the Bhagavata avoid the Gita—where is music, color, rasa, and where the battlefield! Perhaps there is no personality greater than Krishna in swallowing such vast oppositions at once. So people have clung to one face of Krishna and denied the others. Gandhi called the Gita his mother, but he could not assimilate it. Where would Gandhi’s ahimsa…

Osho, Krishna is supremely enlightened and beyond the three gunas, yet he deceives, lies, and wages war. Buddha, Mahavira, Lao Tzu, etc., do nothing of the sort. Kindly shed light on Krishna’s personality described above, in the context of the qualities of sattva, rajas, and tamas.

First, it is essential to understand that no comparison is possible between two enlightened ones. All comparisons are false. Every great being is unique; there is no second like him. In truth, even an ordinary person is unique. There is no other like you. The great one within you appears when you bring your own nature, your own destiny, to its fullness. You too are incomparable. There is no other person on earth exactly like you—neither today, nor ever before, nor ever after. Search the whole earth and you won’t find two identical leaves on a tree; not even two identical pebbles. And when your polish deepens and the supreme flowering of your life manifests, then you become like the summit of a Mount Everest. Even now you are unmatched; then you will be utterly unmatched. Now, perhaps, some accord with others is still possible; then there will be none.…

Osho, yesterday you said that when anger is watched consciously, it dissolves. But why is it that when sexual desire arises, even in awareness its intensity persists? Why is it so?

There is no entanglement in the breath. If you try to practice on anger… Anger is not happening every moment; it happens sometimes. And when it happens, it happens with such intensity that you are already going deep into it; so much is at stake in those moments that you may think, “We will look into awareness later; first let’s settle this now.” Lust is very deep, because existence has made it so deep; life depends on it. If lust were so easy that you decided and were freed, perhaps you would not even have been born—because many before you would have become free, and the possibility of your being would have been almost nil. But your parents, and their parents, did not become free; therefore you are. You too will not get free so easily, because your children are also to be—they are waiting: “Do not run away midway.”…